2.5 MARINE AND COASTAL COMMUNITIES AND ECOSYSTEMS
absorbed into the tissues of marine life, thus entering the food chain. In addition to forming through a process of fragmentation, microplastics enter the marine system directly through sewage discharges or factory waste streams as a primary pollutant in the form of microbeads. Recent studies estimate that 263 tonnes of microbeads per year are released to the environment in the United States alone, about half of which pollute marine systems (Gouin et al. 2011).
Microbeads were introduced in consumer goods to increase sales of personal care products. These products are among the most gender-manipulated consumer items, and the rapid proliferation of microbeads in them can only be understood as part of a gender- consumption nexus (UNEP and WECF in press). Women are socialized to be much heavier users of personal cosmetics than men (see also Section 2.4). As heavy consumers of products containing microbeads, they have an opportunity and a responsibility to challenge these products’ use. The Plastic Soup Foundation, a women-led organization in the Netherlands, has taken a lead in organizing an international campaign against cosmetics-based maritime microbead pollution, Beat the Microbead, as has the 5 Gyres organization based in the United States (5 Gyres 2016; Plastic Soup Foundation 2016).
There are clear gender differences in exposures to plastics and their chemical components and by- products, whether through direct use of cosmetics that contain microbeads and plasticizers or through the marine food chain (UNEP and WECF in press; Barrett 2005).
In addition to the uptake of plastics and associated chemicals directly from marine plastics, leaching of plastic-production chemicals from landfills into marine systems results in significant uptake of chemicals such as Bisphenol A (BPA) into the marine food chain (Kang et al. 2006). Women and men have different vulnerabilities and suffer different health consequences from exposures to the oestrogen mimicry and endocrine disruption effects of plastics. In women they have been strongly associated with breast cancer and reproductive disorders (Rochman et al. 2013; McLachlan et al. 2006). Fish and other marine wildlife that ingest microbeads also ingest chemicals attached to the microbeads during manufacturing or the “hydrophobic pollutants” such as polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs), DDT and
Microbeads in consumer products. Photo credit: © Alicia Dominga
polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) that collect on the surface of microbeads in salt or fresh water (Office of New York State Attorney General 2014). Little research is yet available on the gender-differentiated effects of these chemicals, which are transferred up the food chain to humans along with the microbeads themselves.
Polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs): PCBs are among the major bioaccumulating chemicals. They are found throughout the world’s oceans, often at very high levels. PCBs are carried into marine systems by run-off from land-based industrial processes or through airborne deposits, and they persist for many years in sediment deposits and in the food chain. In humans exposure to (or ingestion of) PCBs can damage the immune system, liver, skin, reproductive system, gastrointestinal tract and thyroid gland (Secretariat of the Stockholm Convention 2008); thyroid effects show differential impacts on women, men, boys and girls (Persky et al. 2001). Women are often advised to reduce or temporarily eliminate fish consumption during pregnancy to avoid the transfer of ingested toxins to the foetus; in the case of PCBs this is ineffective in reducing both pre- and post-natal exposures, as the PCBs persist in the body for long periods and children are exposed to them through breastfeeding and weaning foods (Binnington et al. 2014). In Norway consumption of fish, fish liver and seagull eggs is the main dietary source of PCBs and dioxins in women and children (Caspersen et al. 2013). Although production of PCBs was largely banned in 2001 under the Stockholm Convention on Persistent Organic Pollutants, their use continues (Secretariat of the Stockholm Convention 2008).
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